Cannot open Windows, nor will any Office documents open. I get a message that "something went wrong"

Question

I click on the Windows icon and nothing happens. Therefore, I cannot access the control panel to attempt fixes I have seen on line.

Answer 1

Let's get you into the Windows Recovery Environment instead, which runs outside your normal Windows setup and should be stable even if something inside Windows itself is interfering.

To trigger it, hold your power button to force a shutdown while Windows is on, then power back on and let it try to boot normally. Do this three times in a row — after the third failed/interrupted boot, Windows automatically drops into the Recovery Environment (you'll see "Preparing Automatic Repair" or similar). From there, choose Troubleshoot, then Advanced options.

In Advanced options, you'll see several tools — try Startup Repair first and let it run, since it may fix this automatically. If that doesn't resolve it or isn't available, go back into Advanced options and choose Command Prompt instead, which opens a command line outside your normal profile and should be far more stable than the one that kept closing. From there, we can run sfc /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth properly.

Try the force restart three times and let me know what you land on — Startup Repair, Command Prompt, or something else in that menu.

Answer 2

Hi, Please Open the Run dialog again with the Windows key + R, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (not just Enter) so it opens as Administrator — you should get a UAC prompt; click Yes. A plain cmd window should open.

Once you're in, run this and let it finish (it can take several minutes): sfc /scannow. This checks for and repairs corrupted system files.

Answer 3

Copy and paste all of these into the Run box, from powershell to the end quotation mark;

powershell -command "Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}"

and then press Enter.

Answer 4

Hi, let me help you.

First, try Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager directly, since that bypasses the Start button entirely. In Task Manager, click File, then "Run new task," type explorer.exe, and hit Enter — this restarts Windows Explorer and often brings the Start menu back to life on its own. If Task Manager won't open either, try Ctrl+Alt+Delete instead, which gives you a menu with Task Manager as one of the options.

If explorer.exe restarts but the Start menu still won't respond, open a Run dialog with Windows key + R (this often still works even when clicking the icon doesn't, since it's a different input path) and run this to re-register the Start menu components: powershell -command "Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}". Paste that into the Run box.

Once the Start menu is working again, check whether Office fixes itself too. If it still throws that error, go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Microsoft Office > Modify > Quick Repair.